Jewish New Year Wishes and Hard Realities

First off let me wish all a Shana Tova (שנה טובה). The wish for all is one filled with hopes for blessings and great wonders granting fulfillment and meeting all your needs at ample levels such that you are able to share your great fortune and blessings with others. May the world melt away with all its threats and menacing situations that will only grow more frightening if allowed to fester like a wound spreading its infectious poisons weakening the rest of the body of the surrounding societies. Still, for each of us we can always shut the troubled world out as we isolate ourselves in the safety and warmth of our personal castles, our little corner of the world where our decisions are the law of the manor. For the next day when again we are obliged to enter the world with all its threats and dangers which are more real and personal in some places than in others, let our steps find grace and protection from the threats and dangers which surround us each and every day. So, let us work to keep those parts of our world over which we have dominion be ordered and safe with considerations for doing that which will serve the better inspirations and avoid the poisons which are defined in the morning prayers as the evil inclinations. But still there are those threats, both near and far, which being beyond our control, consist of risks and perils which seem to escalate with each day that they are not effectively countered by those in governments with whom we have entrusted our safety and protection.

Today is also the start of the new year for the United Nations General Assembly where numerous leaders and people of prestige and importance, both perceived and actual, are given the podium where they often make speeches full of impressive words and pontifications which are full of sounds and fury but often signify little more than empty phrases. But interspersed there are those few who set in motion perils, threats and plots which endanger some in order to use the blunt power the United Nations is capable of putting in motion to grant one group favors through force of arms taking it from another group not favored in the eyes of the world which makes up the United Nations. Fortunately these threats are only encouraged and backed by the General Assembly where mob rule is the law of suggestion and little more as without the guarantee of military force there is no enforcement beyond the intimidations of popular opinion and raucous protests filled with criticisms of little minds while these same insisting demands are refused and voted down in the Security Council where the five powers which hold the greatest sway in this sole place where through Chapter Seven, the place of most serious concerns which deserve greater enforcement than their suggestions under Chapter Six, will set in motion demands which carry the force of the greatest powers in the world and the military pressures and enforcements which actually change the realities in the world.

There will once again this year be another charade with the little man demanding he be respected and that his demands be enforced and that those who he claims are stealing everything from his people, a people whose claims are made by repeating the actual history of the people they intend to destroy and vanquish taking the lands promised them by the entire world almost a century ago when the forerunner of the United Nations, the League of Nations, in a near unanimous vote granted these ancient people the rights to their homeland as described in one of the world’s oldest known manuscripts, but that must be overturned as everybody knows that their claim must be refused because they are not popular and are refused any consideration by so many people in the world and their numbers are so small they have no power to enforce their claims and we are populous and threaten any who are so impertinent as to refuse to support and give us everything we demand. These strange and verbose complaints have become a regular offering every year in September with the opening ceremonies at the United Nations where many pompous individuals go to be granted their moment in the limelight, but for this peculiar pontificator will once again make grand claims to the ancestral homeland of his people, a people whose origins can be traced all the way back to 1964 when Yasser Arafat with his second in command, Mahmoud Abbas, formed the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and made the original claim to the lands of Palestine which were defined as all of the lands between the Jordanian held West Bank and the Egyptian held Gaza and the Mediterranean Sea and the Sinai to the south and Lebanon to the north, also one could describe this land as the lands within the Green Line, also known as Israel. Yasser Arafat is gone so we will not be privileged to have a little man with a three day beard, fatigues, despite never having been a soldier, a kefiyah carefully shaped to resemble a map of Israel, and a loaded revolver strapped to his side addressing the United Nations General Assembly armed in a city where owning a gun is near impossible in front of a gathering which presumably seeks and enforces peace, and this little man stood at the podium armed in the halls of the United Nations. Instead we will have his original second in command and who is a man of peace just as was his former boss, Yasser Arafat, the man who invented the hijacking of planes for political ransoms, we will hear from Mahmoud Abbas, some refer to him as Yasser Arafat in a suit, who will make the same tired demands that the Israelis, the Jews, the Zionists be forced to give his people their proper ancestral lands which they have lived in for, according to his claims earlier this year, for the last nine thousand years.

Abbas has never bothered to explain how this is possible as these very same lands have a written history which tells of the Israelites after their Exodus they conquering these lands from the Canaanites killing every last one as they were considered an abomination to G0d, no Arabs were present at that time. Later these lands were conquered by the Assyrians; there were no Arabs at that time. They were conquered by the Babylonians; there were no Arabs at that time. Next, these lands came under Persian rule as they swept across the area; there were no Arabs at that time. Then these same lands were conquered by the Greeks; still there were no Arabs at that time. Then the Romans rolled through these lands on their way to conquering the known world and this stretch of land was on the way to Egypt; there still were no Arabs in these lands. The Judeans, the remaining tribe of the Israelites, were a restless and rancorous people who did not take well to being ruled and not permitted their worship in their temple and attempted to throw off Roman rule. They met with mostly failure and greater oppressions but eventually they succeeded in repelling the Romans for a short period, a period just long enough for the Romans to gather four legions returning with vengeance and a lust for complete subjugation which they were unable to fulfill as these obstinate people who refused Roman rule at Masada who after constructing a ramp were denied their victory as rather than face life as Roman slaves the Judean chose suicide (pictured below including the Roman ramp and base camp); still there were no Arabs. So, when did the first Arabs arrive in these lands you ask? Well, it was not until half a millennia, over five hundred years after the Romans took Masada, a full five hundred years after the Romans destroyed the Second Temple and carried the treasures of the Temple off to Rome, to Rome where Titus’s Arch, complete with stone relief of the Temple treasures being carried off, was erected to Honor Titus and the Roman accomplishment (picture of arch relief below). As there are historic records from the Jewish Bible, Babylonian writings, Persian writings, Greek historic poems and records, Roman records and all of these conquerors found no Arabs inhabiting these lands but they did find and record the presence of the Hebrews or Jews depending on the stage in history where these lands fell from Israelite rule.

Mahmoud Abbas headed off to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly where he is guaranteed a warm and welcoming reception from the majority of the almost two-hundred nations’ representatives and their visiting dignitaries who have come to join in the festivities. This is guaranteed as there are twenty plus Arab nations represented, another dozen Muslim majority nations, the Nonaligned Member Nations (NAM) which includes many of the Arab and Muslim nations with an additional eighty to hundred additional nations and observer nations (one of which is one of the five permanent nations with a veto in the Security Council, China) which guarantees Mahmoud Abbas will be cheered and applauded by minimally one-hundred-thirty-seven nations who will willingly give their support to any scheme or plan he presents giving Israel, a member state of the United Nations, no regard or concern even to the point of demanding Israel cease to exist as it now stands if that were to ever be set to a vote. Perhaps this is part of the reason the General Assembly is only empowered to make suggestions which need the approval of all nations involved or affected in any manner and if only one nation refuses the action of the General Assembly, even the most reviled before the majority in the General Assembly, then the suggestion is invalidated and made void. The most applicable example might be the General Assembly Resolution 181 carried by a vote on November 29, 1947, which called for the establishment of both a Jewish and an Arab state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea which was actually accepted by the Zionist Jews but refused by the Arab League as they planned an assault to destroy Israel immediately after its founding. Had the Arabs accepted this provision there would have been a Palestinian Arab state formed in 1948 but they decided to turn to war and take all the land and would have except their military assault failed. They have been attempting to erase the little Jewish state of Israel ever since and their machinations continue to this day and will be presented to the United Nations by Mahmoud Abbas in his address to the General Assembly.

Mahmoud Abbas made a brief stop in Paris, France on his way to New York to meet with French President François Hollande to implore him to support the secretive new plan to force a favorable resolution from the Security Council against Israel. President François Hollande gave his hearty support guaranteeing Abbas that he would do all in his power to pass his latest and greatest plan to force Israel to comply. This super-secret plan has one small flaw, Abbas has made this same demand every year for quite some time and this year’s secret addition, he has a new wrinkle every year otherwise his droning on with his litany of complaints and accusations of Israeli crimes would become tedious. This year Mahmoud Abbas is going to demand that the Security Council pass an enforceable Chapter Seven Resolution which will demand that Israel vacate all of Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem within three years or else, which includes all of the Old City and the Temple Mount which will deny the Israelis from having access to dozens of the holiest sites in Judaism. The first question many might ask is or else what. The answer is that as a Chapter Seven Resolution if Israel fails to fully retreat from all of the contested areas of which under international law Israel has a greater claim to all of the lands than does any other nation and especially the deceptive and fictional Palestinians, the invention of an Egyptian terrorist with delusions of destroying Israel, murdering the Jews residing there and taking their lands, homes and treasures and expecting the complicity of the entire world. Abbas has assumed the leadership after Arafat’s demise and has not missed an opportunity to refuse any and every compromise knowing that anything short of the complete eradication of Israel would be accepted by the terror state he has been elected once to lead. There have been elections scheduled at least twice since Abbas presumably won after his supporting staff counted the ballots and he has cancelled all of them but still claims he was duly elected. The probable result will be a General Assembly Resolution which will give Abbas the ability to claim that the Israelis must surrender and grant him his maximalist demands because he got the support of the mob of the dictatorial nations and human rights violators all who join Abbas in his hatred of Israel and the Jews attempting to force the world to grant his desires ignoring international law and the agreements, including the Oslo Accords, to which he is a signatory.

The fear is that by some misadventure of fate the Security Council Resolution to force Israel to surrender absolutely and completely before the wildest demands because there was no veto placed by any of the five permanent nations, China, Britain, Russia, France and the United States. Abbas has already received assurances from France that they are behind him completely which may explain why Jews are fleeing before rampant anti-Semitism which has exploded beyond reason across all of France. Abbas knows he has the support of both Russia and China which leaves Britain and the United States. There are some who might question whether United States President Obama might instruct United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power to abstain or actually vote in favor or there is a possibility that the woman, Samantha Power, who once stated in an interview that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could require a sizeable United States military intervention to enforce the formation of a Palestinian state and defend it from Israel with the decision of borders by executive decision from the White House forcing whatever that decision would be. The excerpt from that interview is below.

Would President Obama instruct Ambassador Power to not veto Abbas’s proposition and allow it to pass as Chapter Seven and then offer United States military personnel to enforce this edict? Would Ambassador Power completely on her own volition decide that the time has come to force a solution and that this is the perfect opportunity to deliver on her theory and how could anybody blame her for taking this opportunity to fairly and resolutely as such an opportunity to enact her theory and apply the R2P (right to protect) to protect and save the Palestinian from the potential genocide that Ms. Power has previously claimed they may face at some point because of Israeli aggressions despite the fact that Israel has only ever used military force in response to attacks upon Israelis. That would leave Britain which in the past has either abstained or vetoed such previous attempts. There has never been an actual resolution voted on by the Security Council as Abbas has either backed away from taking his demands before the Security Council fearing a veto from one of the five permanent members which would be a setback which could poison the well, so to speak. The British Ambassador would need to check with London and then it would depend on British Prime Minister David Cameron. The fact that Prime Minister Cameron is instructing one of the five permanent member’s vote in the Security Council at a time when the United States dependability to protect Israel from the animosities emerging from Turtle Bay are in question may prove to be a deliverance of fate or from a higher source. The potential for high drama starts today or whenever Abbas takes to the podium before the General Assembly and the wait to see if he will actually take to the Security Council arm in arm with François Hollande or the unfortunate French Ambassador to the United Nations who may be assigned to gather the rewards of befriending Abbas and encouraging his perfidy.

Beyond The Cusp

President Obama to Request UN Permission to Fight Terrorism

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power speaking in reference to the hopes for a unanimous approval by the Security Council on measures that nations will be granted to take to fight the return of terrorists from foreign conflicts which threaten their nations was quoted referring to the Islamist State terrorists stating, that foreign fighters like those in Iraq and Syria participate in “brutal atrocities” becoming radicalized and their returning to their home country they were “posing threats of the most profound kind to their fellow citizens.” Her statements came during discussions of a United Nations Security Council Resolution being sought by the United States under the direction of President Obama which would set up and organize individual nations to coordinate and cooperate in addressing the threats posed by these returning fighters and an avenue to curb the flow of their citizens to war zones. Ambassador Power stressed the point that should the Security Council pass a resolution setting up an avenue and organizes the steps for nations then “a huge amount of hard work” will be required by the countries to curb the flow of fighters, tackling their financing and counter violent extremism. She also noted that there exist Russians, Germans, Canadians and French fighting with the terrorists in these foreign war zones that could potentially return to their native countries and pose extreme threats to their homelands. Estimates place around fifty Americans presently fighting in Syria and Iraq which President Obama is seeking to have methodologies put in place by the United Nations Security Council permitting the United States to join with other nations in addressing these threats and possibly preventing the problem from growing even more serious.

 

So, let us see if we have this correct. The President of the United States is turning to the United Nations to request that they set up the guidelines and approve the actions that nations are to be allowed to take in order to protect their citizens from the dangers that returning jihadists might pose emanating from their becoming exposed to extremist doctrines and activities which might have radicalized them making them more prone to committing violent acts against their native countrymen once they return from fighting with terrorists. President hopes that the United Nations Security Council will provide him with the tools and recommend actions which would permit the United States to prevent future Americans from going to support and fight with the Jihadi terrorist groups, particularly those in Syria and Iraq as well as other hot spots across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as well as empowering nations in taking actions addressing and mitigating the threats caused by those already fighting with these terrorist groups worldwide. President Obama cannot actually think that he needs the blessings and permission of the United Nations to take measures which would protect the United States from these dangerous jihadists returning from terrorist trainings and fighting in foreign wars. President Obama has to realize that there are already laws which the United States has at its disposal in order to fight this problem and that the permission and blessings of the United Nations are completely irrelevant to this situation. Perhaps President Obama is looking for guidance and actual steps which the United Nations has laid out and approved so that if any efforts taken by President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and whatever other cabinet secretaries or department heads are included in these United Nations approved actions will be able to fall back on the excuse that the United Nations had defined and limited their actions should their actions fail to prevent every possible terrorist act which one of these returning jihadists might perform or terrorist actions they might plan and execute. Perhaps this is some grand stratagem simply to provide the President and the entire Administration with plausible deniability while placing the blame for any and all failures squarely on the fact that the United Nations prescribed the steps which were acceptable to the world and placing these limitations on the Administration in fighting any and all potentialities resulting from returning jihadists.

 

Making all of this nonsense of going to the United Nations Security Council to formalize those steps permissible and for furthering cooperation between nations in fighting jihadist terrorism was in the same source of news as an article on the steps taken, completely without any consultations with the United Nations or coordination with other nations around the world to receive approvals from any outside entities by the King of Saudi Arabia. It was reported that back in February the King of Saudi Arabia decreed jail sentences of up to twenty years for simply belonging to “terrorist groups” and fighting abroad as an additional step to deter Islamist Saudis from becoming jihadists. The article further reported that Saudi Arabia, acting on these simple steps put forth unilaterally by the King of Saudi Arabia they across the board blacklisted the Muslim Brotherhood as well as two Syrian jihadist groups designating them to be terrorist organizations and further insisting that all Saudi Arabian citizens fighting abroad must return home within fifteen days or face imprisonment. These were not the end of actions taken by the Saudi Arabian government as they even banned the sale of all books authored by two authors thought to be sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood. Finally, in June the Saudi Arabian justice system tried and sentenced thirty-three Islamist terrorists to prison sentences for as much as thirty years. Add to this, the Saudi Arabians took all of these steps completely independent and without the approval of the United Nations, neither the General Assembly nor the more prestigious Security Council. Imagine that!

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Israel Enters the United Nations Lion’s Den Today

Thanks largely to Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who sent an urgent letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu threatening serious and “severe diplomatic damage” should Israel once again not attend their United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Periodic Review, Israeli UN Ambassador Ron Prosser will be attending this dressing down from a body which has singled out Israel for special sessions and issued numerous critiques of presumed Israeli crimes against Palestinians and demanded that Israel withdraw from the entirety of Judea and Samaria returning them to what the UNHRC considers the rightful legal owners of these lands, the Palestinians, and the Israelis are to return the lands without any concern or expectations of any recognition or other concessions from the Palestinians. Ambassador Prosser will likely be demanded to take a message back to Tel Aviv, they do not recognize Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel though they do recognize al-Quds as the Palestinian Capital City, demanding that the Israeli government immediately remove every Israeli from the occupied territories beyond Israel’s UNHRC recognized borders, which just happen to be the 1948 Armistice Lines also called the Green Line, and turn everything over to Mahmoud Abbas and his band of terrorist enablers without any guarantee of peace or a ceasing of attacks, bombings, kidnapping, or any other assurance for the safety of the Israelis from Palestinian aggressions. What is interesting is that the UNHRC would be more likely to demand that Israel be turned into a non-military state and be made to turn their security over to the Palestinian Authority than they would to make the Palestinian State a non-military state and allow the Israelis to provide security over their territories. The result is likely that the UNHRC will simply allow both sides to be armed to the teeth but will demand that Israel show restraint should any attacks originate from the Palestinian areas and every year the UNHRC will still find reasons to condemn Israel while turning a blind eye to any provocations or transgressions committed by the Palestinians.

 

The United Nation Human Rights Council, which replaced the previously flawed United Nations Human Rights Committee which was denounced for years over its singling out of Israel as seemingly the sole oppressor, has somehow managed to escape most of the criticisms for also accusing Israel as being the most violent abuser of human rights while seeing no such violations elsewhere. There really has been little change and much of the difficulty is built into the makeup of the membership. The UNHRC has forty-seven member states distributed with African States receiving 13 seats, Asia-Pacific States receiving 13 seats, Latin American and Caribbean States receiving 8 seats, Western European and other States receiving 7 seats, and Eastern European States receiving 6 seats which go through a rotating replacement system with each member state serving a term of three years and are not eligible for immediate re-election after serving two consecutive terms. Due to this membership definition there is almost always guaranteed to be heavily weighted with nations from the Arab and Muslim States combined with members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) along with a mix of European states of which usually half will vote in favor of any denunciation of Israel concerning the Palestinians, occupied lands, or aggressions against neighboring states or terror groups such as Hamas, Hezballah and Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. There are usually only about eight to a dozen nations at best which will back Israel against spurious charges which is nowhere near sufficient to prevent the Muslims states and their allies from constantly proposing and voting approvingly for motions condemning Israel for having the audacity to exist.

 

For those who have doubts as to validity of these claims, please research the denunciations by United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights Navi Pillai over her time in that position and note how few were against any nation other than Israel and then you can go one step further and research the denunciation of the UNHRC and realize how they are weighted beyond belief towards only Israel. In their defense, Syria has been receiving some attention lately but there are others such as China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Miramar, Viet Nam and numerous others who barely if ever get denounced despite horrific violations of human rights. The reason has some basis on the fact that Israel is an open society where reporters and inspectors may go about their business without any government interference or the providing of a minder to follow and monitor their every move which causes Israel, like the United States, to receive more attention than some place where a bad report could result in being imprisoned or even murdered. Also, Israel has a pleasant climate and is a great place to holiday while presumably inspecting for human rights violations.

 

So, while you go through your day today, if you find you are having some difficulty or just need a little pick-me-up, just think about Israeli United Nation Ambassador Prosser and remember the grief he will face today and be glad that you have whatever difficulty you are facing, unless you are Ambassador Prosser’s assistant and are attending the review with him. You might even wish to say a prayer asking that Ambassador Prosser be granted super-human patience and a form of serene understanding allowing insults and false accusations to roll off him like water off a duck’s back. Today is one of the many reasons that Ambassador Prosser is paid the big bucks, or big Shekels, though I doubt he was paid sufficiently for this particular day. So, Ambassador Prosser, thank you for all you do and may you be calm under fire and able to resist giving the members of the UNHRC a piece of your or even many of our minds. May your evening find you having a peaceful meal of your favorite dish with a scrumptious dessert. We honor your representing Israel and appreciate your efforts and would stand with you given the chance and are standing with you in spirit and once again, thank you sir.

 

Beyond the Cusp